Music club bows out

Haruko Seki EMN-150704-1Honorary president of Sleaford Music Club will be performing a piano recital for its last concert.03034001

Published:08:00Saturday 11 April 2015

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A club which has brought high quality classical music to the town for 76 years is disbanding after its final concert of the season.

Sleaford Music Club is ceasing due to the imminent loss of key committee members and dwindling finances in the face of rising costs.

The final concert will be a change to the one advertised, instead featuring pianist Haruko Seki, the club’s honorary president.

Chairman Barbara Lyon explained that she and her husband Andrew, the club secretary, are retiring after 20 years and moving away to Wales, and the treasurer Felicity Amery is also retiring.

Mrs Lyon said: “The committee has got very small, there is nobody to take over and we are running out of money. We had wanted to move away three or four years ago but agreed to carry on and gradually use up the club funds.”

She said after many years of being allowed to use North Kesteven District Council’s Civic Suite for free, the club will now have to begin paying for its hire, on top of booking musicians and hire of a piano, meaning costs can often reach £800 per concert.

Mrs Lyon said: “With the Arts Council cutting back on grants we just cannot raise enough at a concert to keep us going, which is a shame.”

Sleaford Music Club originally started out with concerts in local schools until they negotiated free use of the council chambers during its construction in the 1980s.

Mrs Lyon said: “I still meet people in Sleaford who don’t know there are classical music concerts here.”

She went on: “We will just have enough money to hire the piano for Haruko Seki, who was very upset to hear we are finishing.”

The final concert starts at 7.30pm on April 17 at the Civic Suite of NKDC council offices in Eastgate, admission £12, concessions £11.